Dominique Dawes

Dominique Margaux Dawes (born November 20, 1976) is a retired American artistic gymnast. Known in the gymnastics community as 'Awesome Dawesome', she was a 10-year member of the U.S. national gymnastics team, the 1994 U.S. all-around senior National Champion, a three-time Olympian, a World Championship silver and bronze medalist, and a member of the gold-medal-winning "Magnificent Seven" team at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. She is also the Olympic bronze medalist on floor exercise from the Atlanta games.

She is also one of only four female American gymnasts, along with Muriel Grossfeld, Linda Metheny-Mulvihill, and Simone Biles, to compete in three Olympics and was part of their medal-winning teams: Barcelona 1992 (bronze), Atlanta 1996 (gold), and Sydney 2000 (bronze). Dawes is the first female gymnast to be a part of three Olympic-medal-winning teams since Ludmilla Tourischeva won gold in Mexico City (1968), Munich (1972), and Montreal (1976). Since Dawes, Svetlana Khorkina and Simone Biles are the only gymnasts to accomplish this feat. Svetlana winning silver in Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000), and bronze in Athens (2004) and Simone winning gold in Rio (2016), silver in Tokyo (2020) and gold in Paris (2024).

In 2020 Dawes became a minority owner of The NWSL’s Washington Spirit, under the ownership of team owner Michele Kang.

In 2024, Dawes, as first announced by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, became a Limited Partner with the Atlanta Falcons ownership group, under the head ownership of team owner Arthur Blank.

Early life

Dawes was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, on November 20, 1976, to Don and Loretta Dawes of Takoma Park, Maryland. She enrolled in gymnastics at age 6 with coach Kelli Hill and won her first competition at age 9. In high school, she moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland, to be closer to her coach's gym.

Gymnastics career

Junior career

Dawes was competing as a junior elite by the age of 10. She placed 17th in the all-around junior division at her first U.S. National Championships in 1988. In 1989, at the age of 12, she was sent to Australia to compete in her first international meet, the Konica Grand Prix. By the early 1990s, Dawes was achieving success both nationally and internationally. She placed 3rd in the all-around in the junior division at the 1990 U.S. National Championships.

At the 1992 USA vs. Japan dual meet, the 15-year-old Dawes received a standing ovation, after an energetic floor routine in which she revived the back-to-back tumbling revolutionized by Soviet star Oksana Omelianchik. The judges were equally impressed, and gave her a perfect 10. Though she was not part of the 1991 World Championship team, Dawes continued to move up on the national and international scene throughout 1991 and 1992. Dawes performed respectably throughout the competition, even having the boldness to try a brand-new move in her balance beam routine during team competition - back handspring to three layout stepouts. She also won over the crowd with a solid optional floor exercise routine and, with a mark of 9.925, tied with Kim Zmeskal for the highest score for the American team on the event. The team won bronze, and Dawes and teammate Betty Okino became the first African American females to win an Olympic medal in gymnastics.

Dawes only competed in the team competition in 1992, not breaking through as an all-around gymnast until 1993. She is probably best known for her performances at the 1993 and 1994 World Championships. In 1993, Dawes led the competition after three events, even beating her more famous teammate Shannon Miller. However, she decided to try her harder vault (1½ twisting layout Yurchenko) worth a 10.00 instead of simply a full-twisting layout Yurchenko, which had been devalued to a 9.8. She made the first vault, but slipped and fell on the second, immediately bursting into tears. With the new rule that both vaults were averaged in all-around competition, her fall dropped her to 4th overall while Miller won the title. Famously, after the vault fall Dawes's coach Kelli Hill exhorted her to be proud of her performance anyway, stating: "When did you ever think you would be in that position? You have to be happy with yourself. Come on. Be happy. Stand up and wave". Dawes did so and earned a standing ovation from the crowd. After this disappointment she rebounded in the event finals, winning two silver medals on bars and beam. She went on to lead the American team to a silver medal at the World Team Championships in Dortmund, Germany posting the third highest all-around score in the process.

1996

Dawes struggled through a difficult 1995 riddled by wrist and ankle injuries. She finished fourth at nationals and was forced to sit out the World Championships that year. At the 1996 World Championships, Dawes missed out on a medal on the uneven bars but tied Liu Xuan for a bronze medal on the balance beam. At the 1996 U.S. National Championships Dawes swept all four event finals for the second time in her career making her the first gymnast ever to accomplish this feat twice. Dawes also finished first at the Olympic trials, earning a berth on the 1996 Olympic team at the age of 19. Dawes led the competition after two rotations, with Shannon Miller right behind her. Both gymnasts were on Floor Exercise for the 3rd rotation. Miller had a substantial mistake in her routine, knocking her out of the medals. On the middle tumbling pass of Dawes's floor routine, she under-rotated for fear that she might step out of bounds; she sat down the tumbling pass (and went out of bounds anyway) causing her position to plummet in the standings. NBC cameras zoomed in on Dawes, sitting in tears as her score from floor exercise was announced (it was an even 9.000), which led to numerous boos from the audience. She managed to pull out a decent Vault score, but finished 17th overall. In the Event Finals, she placed sixth on Vault and just out of the medals on Uneven Bars, but redeemed herself by winning Bronze in Floor Exercise finals, her first World Championship or Olympic medal in what had long been considered her best event.

2000 Olympics

Between 1996 and 1998 Dawes competed in various professional meets but retreated from elite competition. She returned briefly in 1998 to participate in the Goodwill Games where she placed 19th in the Mixed Pairs event with Chainey Umphrey. However, she placed 9th all-around at 2000 U.S. Nationals and 7th at the Olympic Trials, and earned a spot on her third Olympic team.

In team preliminaries at the Sydney Olympics, Dawes posted the second highest score of the American team on uneven bars but the lowest on beam. In the team finals, she performed well on three events, contributing their highest beam score and 3rd highest bars score (a very high 9.7), and contributed to the team's bronze medal awarded April 28, 2010 when the International Olympic Committee stripped China of its 2000 team medal for an underage competitor.

Education and life after gymnastics

thumb|Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes at 2010 National Dance Day

Dawes attended Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Gaithersburg High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where she was the 1994 prom queen.

thumb|240px|Dawes speaking at a physical fitness rally

Dawes served as president of the Women's Sports Foundation from 2004 to 2006; she was the youngest president in the Foundation's history. She was the first spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of the USA's "Uniquely Me" self-esteem campaign in 2002. Dawes, whose younger brother is autistic, has supported events for autism awareness, such as the 2001 Power of One rally in Washington, D.C. She served on the Advisory Board of Sesame Workshop's "Healthy Habits for Life" program and also works as a motivational speaker, concentrating on youth issues. In June 2010, President Obama appointed Dawes and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees the co-chairs of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.

She provided commentary for Yahoo's coverage of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

In 2010, Dawes wrote an article and produced a video for Yahoo Weekend News about Power Balance Bracelets, whose maker claimed that they improve balance, flexibility and strength. A 16-person trial found that the bracelets conveyed no advantage.

Dawes appeared with gymnasts Nadia Comăneci and Simone Biles in a commercial for Tide called "The Evolution of Power" before the 2016 Summer Olympics.

In 2022, she was to guest star as herself with Gabby Douglas and Laurie Hernandez in the episode "A Perfect 10" of the second season of the Disney+ animated series The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, judging a gymnastics competition.

Skills

Vault: 1.5 twisting Yurchenko, Phelps (Tsukahara to layout Arabian front)
Uneven Bars: Shaposhnikova transition to high bar, Hindorff release (free hip to straddled Tkatchev), 1.5 pirouette (Dawes), full pirouette, full-in dismount
Balance Beam: Back-handspring followed by 3 layout stepouts; two back-handsprings to full-in dismount.
Floor Exercise: Double layout; whip, back handspring, 2.5 twist, punch front (combination); piked full-in back out; double twist-punch front through to double tuck, double twist-punch front through to 2.5 twist-punch front (back-to-back tumbling runs). On floor, Dawes was known for her exhausting and technically intricate back-to-back tumbling passes.

Her music for floor routines:

1994 - Malagueña by Stanley Black Orchestra
1996 - Ukrainian Fantasy & Near the Valley by Kovriga Balalaika Orchestra
2000 - Samba by Armik

Awards

Inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, 2009
Inducted into the USA Olympic Hall of Fame (with the Magnificent Seven), 2008
AAUW Women of Distinction Award, 2004
"Caring Hands, Caring Hearts" Award, Ronald McDonald House Charities and Children Around the World, 2003
Inducted into USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame, 1998
Essence Award, 1997
Olympic gold medalist in Atlanta, Georgia, 1996
Henry P. Iba Citizen Award, presented annually to two outstanding athletes who have demonstrated good citizenship, 1995
Sportsperson of the year by USA Gymnastics, 1994
Finalist for the AAU Sullivan Award, which recognizes the USA's top amateur athlete, 1994
Maryland Women's Hall of Fame, 2019
Montgomery County Sports Hall of Fame, 2019

Personal life

Dawes became engaged in December 2012 to teacher Jeff Thompson. Thompson taught at The Heights school in Potomac, Maryland; he returned to teaching in 2024. Dawes converted to Catholicism, and they married on May 25, 2013. The couple have four children: Kateri, Quinn, and twins Dakota and Lincoln. Dawes has said she suffered a near-fatal miscarriage before becoming pregnant with her twins.

References

External links

Dominique Dawes official website
Dominique Dawes at USA Gymnastics
Dominique Dawes at Gymn Forum